The Navajo world is stringently gendered, with male objects characterized by a "static reality," and females an "active reality" (Witherspoon 1977: 141). This "static reality" is identifiable with the rigidly structured Navajo ceremonial life, which for the most part is male-dominated. "Active reality," on the other hand, refers to Navajo social and economic life, which is defined by movement and change (Witherspoon 1977: 141).

The epitome of this active reality is Changing Woman, whose qualities described in myth are superimposed in contemporary Navajo life. Witherspoon asserts,

The earth and its life-giving, life sustaining,
and life-producing qualities are associated with and
derived from Changing Woman. It is not surprising,
therefore, that women tend to dominate in social and
economic affairs. Women are the heads of most domestic
groups, the clans are matrilineal, and the land and sheep
traditionally were controlled by the women of residential
groups. (1977:141).

Changing Woman's mythical, metaphorical, and pragmatic implications are an excellent vehicle with which to approach other salient areas of Navajo culture. Through an analysis of Changing Woman as described in Paul Zolbrod's version of the Navajo Creation Story, Dine bahane', the symbolic motifs inherent in her mythology can be isolated, identified, and applied to the larger holistic analysis of Changing Woman in Navajo culture.

Witherspoon asserts that Changing Woman is the child of First Boy (Sa'ah Naaghaii) who represents thought, and First Girl (Bik'eh H-zh-), who represents speech (1977: 17). Together, Sa'ah Naaghaii and Bik'eh H-zh- "constitute in linguistic form the ideal world of the Navajo, and they contain the most important ideas and concepts of the Navajo world" (1977:18).

Sa'ah naaghaii and bik'eh h-zh- link into vital concepts of inner and outer forms. All living things have inner and outer forms, and "to achieve well-being the inner forms must harmonize and unify with Sa'ah Naagh‡ii," and the outer forms must do the same with Bik'eh H-zh- (Witherspoon 1977: 25). Changing Woman represents a synthesis of sa'ah naaghaii, which translates to "the capacity of all life and living things to achieve immortality through reproduction," and bik'eh h-zh-, which "represents the peace and harmony essential to the perpetuation of all living species" (Witherspoon 1977:18).

According to Zolbrod, Changing Woman is introduced into the Navajo Creation story at a time of chaos and infertility. The Emergence People in the fifth world had been terrorized by the Binaayee', or monsters, and so only First Man, First Woman, and old man and wife, and their two young children survived. This is significant because without Changing Woman the human race would have ended here, as the adults were past child bearing age and the children related by blood.

For four days, the mountain Ch'ool'i'i was covered with a dark cloud that slowly descended down its base. One day, First Man decided to investigate and set out chanting a optimistic song. He ascended the mountain and at the tip, right when lightning flashed and a rainbow showered him with vibrant colors, did he find Changing Woman. Here is Zolbrod's description of the actual discovery:

He looked down at his feet where he heard a
baby crying. But he beheld only a turquoise figure. In it,
however, he recognized the likeness of a female. It was
no larger than a newborn child, but its body was fully
proportioned like a woman's body. (Zolbrod 1992: 175)

First Man brought the figurine back to First Woman, unsure of what to do with it. Changing Woman only remained with them for fourteen days, after which they took her to a ceremony on Ch'ool'i'i, where Nilchi the Wind transformed her into a living deity, along with her sister, White Shell Woman, and corn.3

The next significant event in Changing Woman's narrative is the myth of her sexual union with the Sun, and her birth to a son named Monster Slayer. On the mountainside, Changing Woman and her sister were lonely and felt strange attractions toward different things. They decided to explore this, and so for four days Changing Woman lay on a rock "with her feet to the east and her legs spread comfortably apart. This way she could relax as she observed the sun make its path across the sky. That way it could shine its warmth fully upon her" (Zolbrod 1992: 181). White Shell Women did the same thing in a shallow pool, letting the water flow around her.

Both the sun's rays and the water are images of intercourse, and therefore, it is not surprising that in four days, the women discovered that they were pregnant. In four more days they each delivered boys, which were placed in traditional cradleboards by First Man.

After Monster Slayer meets his father the Sun, and eventually rids the world of monsters with his help, the Sun asks Changing Woman to move to a special house in the West with him. Zolbrod recreates this scene, stressing Changing Woman's individuality as she asks for a special house in the West, and Sun asks why he should build it for her.

"I will tell you why," she said to him.
"You are male and I am female.
"You are of sky and I am of earth.
"You are constant in your brightness, but I must
change with the seasons.
"You move constantly at the edge of heaven, while
I must be fixed in one place...
"Remember, as different as we are, you and I,
we are of one spirit. As dissimilar as we are,
you and I, we are of equal worth...Unlike each
other as you and I are, there can be no harmony
in the universe as long as there is no harmony
between us." (Zolbrod 1984: 275)

Through Changing Woman's speech, Zolbrod successfully captures the tenuous, but essentially harmonious, relationship of Changing Woman and the Sun, after which every couple should model.

It is after this that the Sun declares the scope of Changing Woman's power: "...Whiteshell woman will attend to her children and provide their food. Everywhere I go over the earth she will have charge of female rain. I myself will control male rain. She will be in charge of vegetation everywhere for the benefit of Earth people" (Reichard 1950: 407).

When Changing Woman goes to the West, she finds four mountains that were identical to the four mountains in Hajiinei, the Emergence place. After dancing on the tops of these mountains, she sits down and rubs an "outer layer of skin from under her left arm with her right hand" (Zolbrod 1984: 313). This skin developed into two adult males and two females, from whom descended the clan Hon‡gh‡ahnii, meaning He Walks Around One Clan.

Then she rubbed the outer layer of skin from under her right arm with her left hand. This too developed into two adult males and females, who eventually became the clan Kin yaa'‡anii, meaning the Towering House People.

After this, she rubbed an outer layer of her skin from her left breast with her right hand. This changed into two adult males and two females as well, who eventually became T- d'ch''''nii, or the Bitter Water Clan.

She again rubbed skin from her breast, this time the right one, with her left hand. Four adults, two men and two women, were formed, who became Bit'ahnii, or Within His Cover People.

She did this two more times, one rubbing skin from between her breasts, thereby forming what would become known as Hashtl'ishnii, or the Mud Clan. The last time she rubbed skin from between her shoulder blades, forming the Close to Her Body Clan.

After she created all of these people, she took them with her to live in the West.4

Although this next passage is not present in Zolbrod's text, it is crucial to defining Changing Woman's identity. It is revealed that, "As the seasons advance, [Changing Woman] becomes old, it is true, but she has the power to reverse the process, becoming young again by degrees, as two children, deifically 'borrowed' from the original cornfield, testified:

When we came in, our grandmother lay
curled up, nearly killed with old age. She got up
and walked with a cane of whiteshell to a room
at the east. She came out again somewhat stronger.
Then, supported by a cane of turquoise, she went into
the south room. She came back walking unaided.
She went next into a room at the west. She came out
a young woman. She went into the north room
and returned, a young girl so beautiful that we bowed
our heads in wonder. (Reichard 1950: 46)

This passage is significant not only because it demonstrates Changing Woman's power of rejuvenation and the cyclical aspect of her nature, but also because it encodes several different layers of symbolism working together. For example, the two canes she rests on are made of white shell and turquoise, which are intimately identified with her. Furthermore, her progression from old age to youth is marked by her visit to four different rooms, each located in a cardinal direction. She reverses the usual connotations of direction by first visiting the east as an old lady, which is symbolic of birth and spring, and ending in the North as a young girl, which is symbolic of death and winter (Aronilth 1991: 36). In a traditional Dine progression, she would have ended with the East as a young girl.